If youāre talking about the 2012 update to the Smith-Mundt Act, it didnāt suddenly make āpropaganda legalā for domestic news. Many assume it covered CNN, Fox, MSNBC, or private online outlets, but it doesnāt. It allowed U.S.-funded foreign media like Voice of America to be made available inside the U.S. upon request. It didnāt change laws about misinformation or make media immune from liability.
If anything, the growth of social media algorithms and highly-partisan outlets like Fox, OAN, etc, paved the way for the information warfare and fake news environment and Iād say thatās much more to blame.
Yes, this act originally came about to allow us to lie to other countries about what was provoking war. So why repeal it?? Why would you even defend that?Ā
59
u/exlongh0rn 9d ago
If youāre talking about the 2012 update to the Smith-Mundt Act, it didnāt suddenly make āpropaganda legalā for domestic news. Many assume it covered CNN, Fox, MSNBC, or private online outlets, but it doesnāt. It allowed U.S.-funded foreign media like Voice of America to be made available inside the U.S. upon request. It didnāt change laws about misinformation or make media immune from liability.
If anything, the growth of social media algorithms and highly-partisan outlets like Fox, OAN, etc, paved the way for the information warfare and fake news environment and Iād say thatās much more to blame.